Belairdirect Auto Insurance Reviews

Unhappy with the news today. Got an email this morning about an "updated policy". Because my app on the phone to monitor my driving habits was not used in over 30 days, my account was cancelled, and all the discount associated with it. 6 months of good driving data, disappeared.
Had a discount of $~45 per month after I've been using this Automerit App, and now the monthly has increased by $90.

Talking to them over the phone, they say that the premium is something about making up the difference since I have pre-payments going on for the term. I thought this discount would be permanent, but no luck. Now I have to be monitored for another 6 months.

Been with Belair for 5 years. This past summer 2018 I had a comprehensive claim as I was hit by a flying tire from another driver, who got charged $5000 in damage to my new 2017 Ram truck. The insurance was handled by Intact, who is the underwriter for Belairdirect. Firstly, they tried delaying the process because of a $5 per day difference in towing company charges for storage. Finally, I intervened and got that settled because they wanted to sue the towing company while my truck was in their compound and not at the dealer getting fixed, which could take weeks in the court system. After that, they were great (Intact Adjuster) and fixed my vehicle, no problems. Come Renewal of all things, they hiked my rates up by 30% and even though I still had a 22% discount using their automerit program, it was a huge increase. I called with my concerns of the rate hike even though I wasn't at fault but still had a claim. They offered a further 5% for my wife if she used automerit. I said ok, no problem. The guy on the phone was courteous and helpful and said he would get that done. A week later I get a letter telling me my wife doesn't qualify for the automerit program and rates won't change. I then called Cooperators Group and was offered a rate 35% less than Belair, and I told them I had the claim etc, they did a background check to verify and still honoured the rate $600 less than Belairdirect. Suffice to say, I cancelled my renewal with Belairdirect. Any claim and they hike the rates up on you. And I should say they didn't hike the rate up on my Ram truck that had the claim, they just applied it to my older 2012 Camry! Trying to say the claim wasn't due to the truck.

So I'm going to be frank here, hoping someone would learn from my experience. I signed up after shopping around, and they offered the best price, so I'll give them that, they offered a great deal! Annually I got quoted for 1560, since I paid the entire amount, I actually paid 1540! GREAT! Now here is when the trouble starts. 1) the person who set me up made a mistake, apparently. He included a loyalty discount because I was with my previous company for 3 years. I informed him I was with RBC for 3 years, then moved to TD for the past year - he informed me, "No worries, I'll consider the higher years" - WOW, AWESOME, or so I thought. (April 10) 2) April 13, I get a call with the following: "Oh, so sorry, we can't include the discount since the more recent company is only 1 year" - I argue, well, your agent, he'll consider the 3 years. But meh, 5% increase, 100$, WHATEVER! 3) I get another call, "Oh, we discovered your mom is also a co-owner, we require to show her proof of insurance, and your letter of experience, if you can prove that your mom has her own insurance, it won't impact your rate". FANTASTIC! Both documents provided. 4) On April 17, I receive an email, "We made multiple attempts to contact you, please call Belair", on Apr 17, Belair successfully reached me, and requested a letter of experience to prove that the 2 claims are under my mom and not myself - that was provided. 5) On May 22, I receive a letter, "You owe us 755$ because we backdated your insurance to include your mom since she is a co-owner, and we felt that she is a high risk". I wasn't even aware that my policy was changed or updated. 6) Talked to a supervisor, who ensured that if I get my mom out of my ownership, then it'll be easier to start a new policy with only my name. So on May 27, went to service Ontario, got the ownership updated, had to replace my tires, do safety test, total of 600$ expense to get her out of my ownership. Jun 4 I get a new ownership, provide it to Belair, and started talking about new policy. The new policy was 300$ more expensive than the original policy, because the system generates new numbers and now I don't qualify for even 1 year loyalty, because my previous policy was only for 1 month... I decided to cancel. Only at that point did customer service decide to get everything resolved. I talked to her for good 3 hours, and I got nowhere! So, on April 17, they sent me "We were trying to reach you", and they reached me, but apparently it was a different department who reached me, customer service vs agent, and I was supposed to still call Belairdirect even though they were able to call me and request the letter of experience which was provided. They also sent me an email requesting to be contacted on Apr 17, and I responded to their agent. The agent failed to check and see that they need to inform me about the backdating. So from April 17 - May 22 there was no contact, and I was under the assumption that I'm paying 1540, and not aware they increased my policy because my mom (co-owner) was included in my policy, and they decided to increase the price without communication. Even though multiple agents confirmed "If mom has her own insurance, it will NOT impact yours". So let's do some math: I paid 1540/ 12 months= 128.33$ a month. New rate (wasn't aware of, nor approved, nor agreed too) was set up on April 13, and I communicated with Belair on Apr 17, and they "forgot" to mention the increase because it's a different department (advice: ask if the call comes, if the person is customer service, or agent, and continue calling to ensure that your policy hasn't changed, and they didn't backdate your policy and overwrote what YOU agreed too), back to math: (1540+755)/2 = 190, so when I canceled, they charged me the 190 + 5$ since the month is 31 day and not 30 days. So I paid them extra 70$ because they added 755 without my knowledge. On top of that, I paid 600$ to get mom out of my ownership, and they gave me a higher rate 1 month after. I should have stuck with 1540+755 with mom on policy, would have been cheaper. My experience with customer service was good - the people tried their best to resolve the issue, BUT the underwriting department doesn't know what the heck they are doing, each person makes their own rules, and each person gives you a different answer, you qualify for 5% royalty, no, you don't , your mom won't impact you if she has her own insurance, no, it will increase your rate by 755. We will communicate with you to inform you about any update, oops, the person forgot to mention this detail. Belair department don't communicate with each other, so if someone calls, you should call again and again and again to make sure all the departments are satisfied. Best part was when customer service agent asked me to log in to my customer service profile online, and I was never aware I had a profile to check. From my wonderful experience detailed above, I will NEVER ever recommend this company to my worst enemy, I swear I've had panic attacks just dealing with them, and update all the documentations that they requested.

I was involved in an accident where I was evidently not at fault. Sent them photos to prove it as well. Not only they condemned me to being partially at fault and destroyed my clean driving records, but after 10 years of being their royal costumer, they totally disregarded their "no premium change after first at fault accident" and increased my premium by 2.5 times.